Tue Sep 20, 2022 2:00 am
Jeter. And it's not even close. He was a winner. A Rod was all about the stats. He was the guy who would hit a homerun in a 10-1 game. When he was with Texas I remember him putting up much bigger numbers when Texas was out of the race. That was my memory...and it was confirmed! Much bigger numbers in the last 2-3 months of the season.Texas won 72, 73 and 71 games when he was there. And 89 the year after he leaves! 71 the year before. A Rod puts up these huge numbers and doesn't affect Texas being able to win more games. Moreover, the year after A Rod left Seattle won 116 games (25 more than the year before!) That's not a misprint.
Jeter comes to the Yankees and they win a bunch of world series. That's not a coincidence. He excelled in the play-offs because he had that quick, short swing and could battle top pitchers until they made a mistake. (They had a number of professional hitters like Bernie Williams, Tino Martinez, Mariano Duncan, Girardi, and Boggs who could that in 1996). A Rod with that more upper-cut power swing had more trouble against higher-quality pitching in the play-offs.
A Rod wanted stats; Jeter wanted titles. That's the difference.